Catch 'em early

Everett Rogers described the Early Adopters as:

(1) integrated part of the local social system,
(2) greatest degree of opinion leadership in most systems,
(3) serve as role model for others,
(4) respected by peers, and
(5) successful.
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These people are critical because they carry your innovation into the profit zone.

Cheers!

Vive la difference!

In the 1940's, two sociologists, Bryce Ryan and Neal Gross published a seminal study of the adoption of hybrid seed among Iowa farmers.

Based on this study, in the 1960's Everett Rogers proposed a five-way classification: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards.

The categories are based on the normal distribution (bell-curve) and each category is one standard deviation wide, except for 'laggards' which is 2 standard deviations wide.

Innovators represent the first 2.5% of the population, Early Adopters the next 13.5%, Early Majority the next 34%, Late Majority the next 34% and Laggards, the remaining 16%.

In the 1940's report, the first farmers to adopt (the innovators) were more cosmopolitan (traveling more frequently to the big city, Des Moines) and of higher socioeconomic status than later adopters. One of the most important characteristics of the innovators is that they require a shorter adoption period than any other category.

Other traits of the innovator type:

(1) venturesome, daring,
(2) substantial financial resources to absorb possible loss from an unprofitable innovation.
(3) can understand and apply complex technical knowledge, and
(4) can cope with a high degree of uncertainty about an innovation.

Is there a market in the gap?

You see that juicy big opportunity in the market? Quick! Let's move on it fast...

Oh, no. Where did all our money go?

Yes, there is a gap in the market. But is there a market in the gap?

Why hasn't someone else seen it? Chances are they have..

Proceed, but proceed with caution.

WAKE UP!

GOODMORNING!

I'M SHOUTING TO WAKE YOU UP TO AN OPPORTUNITY!

The babyboomers are inheriting. Right now. You can hear the assets being transferred all around you.

We are in the middle of the greatest transfer of wealth know to mankind. Trillions of dollars are sluicing around - all of it unearned and most of it not ear marked for anything.

IS your organisation getting a slice of the action?

Those crafty Christians

A thought for Easter Monday morn...

Marketers can learn a lot from those crafty Christians. To baptise 10,000 English pagans, including their king, on a single afternoon was a feat. To convert the entire population of Iceland by means of a public debate was spectacular.

How did they do it?
They converted the masses by making it easy to make the change. Softly softly catchee monkey.

They didn't destroy their temples and altars, they simply redecorated them. They didn't ban their pagan festivals, they 'repurposed' them. So Christmas - which could not have seen shepherds watching their flocks by night in Palestine in mid winter - was chosen because it was the pagan festival of the birth of the Sun - the winter solstice. Easter was chosen because it was the pagan festival of rebirth and fertility.

Those Christians were flexible. They designed the product to suit the customer - customised it for each region until they had market dominance.

Then they did a Microsoft and made it 'whatever Bill decides'.

You'll find a similar strategy for " Crossing the Chasm" in Geoffrey Moore's book of the same name. Niche until you dominate.

Christ's Message for Marketers

How did a small cult become the official religion of the most powerful nation on Earth?

Jesus Christ was executed in the most humiliating way the Roman Empire could devise - crucifixion. The victim was completely deprived of dignity and held up to the derision of the world. For the Romans, within 500 years the sandal was on the other foot. They were bowing down to Jesus as his cult had become the official religion of the Empire under the Emperor Constantine.

500 years is not a long time when it comes to growing from micro-cult to official belief system of the western world.

How did the Christians do it? What lessons are there for marketers?

Product: They had a radical new God the Father who loved each individual like his child. The God of the Jews was a ferocious vengeful jealous God. The Gods of the Romans were equally cruel and fickle. The God of the Christians spoke to the masses, the prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, fishermen, widows and orphans. Jesus said God was inside the weakest person. He was the God of the Lowest Common Denominator.

Logo: The Cross is an instrument of torture, a symbol of humiliation. Hardly a proud symbol for a conquering army. But It was used in a powerful way. It is stark. Anyone can reproduce it. And it carries the core proposition over and over: JC died and rose from the dead - defied death - and you can too.

Sales message: "Love". Long before Kevin Someone from saatchi & saatchi "invented" Lovemarks, the Christians were leveraging 'love'. Christ gave a new commandment: "Love one another as I have loved you." The early missionaries knew their message would appeal to women more than men. So, when going among the pagan races they recruited the wives and mothers of the male rulers and, as we know, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the nation."

Loyalty program: The Christians invented a points system for earning a place in Heaven. It was called "Grace" and you earned it by good works and holiness and you lost it snakes-and-ladders style by erring towards the dark side. The best part about this loyalty system is that no one could tell if anyone ever got the payout because you had to die to find out. Brilliant!
Ya gotta have faith!

Marketing communications: The Christians took the Jewish literature and added a few of their own items, and voila! They looked like a big established religion overnight. Their literature was all stories that simple people could absorb.

Spokescelebrity: JC was a natural. He spoke to the heart. He used parables. He was a brilliant orator and performer. And he had a huge voice - because he could talk from on top of a mountain and all the people around could hear him. He performed miracles. He was able to levitate, appear in two places at once, turn water into wine, and raise the dead. He earned his status as Brand Spokesperson of the Ages.

Customer support: The Christians started out with a party plan. People would meet at one believer's home and eat a meal, sing a few popular songs of inspiration, and share 'fellowship'. The entire operation was decentralised for hundreds of years before the bureaucrats took over and wrote the rules.

Product extensions: Absolute flexibility was built into Christianity, so that today you can find its brand name and logo used by vicious haters of their fellow men and courageous lovers of their fellow men, believers in the death penality and believes in "Thou Shalt Not Kill", by thieves and brigands as well as Good Samaritans.

I could talk about how the Christians took over pagan festivals like Easter and Christmas and made them their own.

This could go on and on... Like into Eternity.

And it all started with a young carpenter's son in a backwater of the Roman Empire during the rule of Caesar Augustus around whom there grew a cult.

Any one with a mouth

When Mo and Jo (a couple of Aussie jokers) were part of Chiat Day-o they pitched the Coke account in the US, so legend has it. After strumming their jingle to the boys from Coke, they were asked, "And who do you see as the target audience for our product?" to which one of them laconically replied "Any c--- with a mouth..."

They did not win the account.

I met a client last week who believes his core target audience is anyone with a pulse and a wallet. Encino Man. Preserved in the ice. Direct from the 1960s. I wanted to take his photo.

He has a vanilla product in a highly segmented market and he's wondering why people aren't beating his doors down.

Hey, Encino Man. The Mammoth went that-a-way.

To hide in a forest

If you want to hide in a forest, look like a tree.

If your advertisement looks like a tree in a forest you have failed the first test.

It will pass like a ship in the night.

Clients without courage force their agencies to produce wallpaper.

Every client can buy the same 30 seconds of air time or page of publication. It's what you fill the space with that makes the difference.

Clients who refuse to maximise return on media dollar invested are committing the crime of negligence against their shareholders.

Looking around you can see that the majority of clients should be fired.

When you look at a group photo...

When you look at a group photo that you are in, whose face do you search for first?

Your own? Don't be so surprised. We are obsessed about ourselves, by nature.

How much can we hear about ourselves?

Endless amounts?

So who does a prospect want to hear you talking about in a sales letter?

Themselves?

And how much of the letter should you devote to them and how much to your company?

I'll let you decide...

Winking in the dark

"Trying to run a business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark."

Now, try using that in a presentation these days...
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Stand naked

Imagine a room full of people shouting at a person standing on a stage, trying to get their attention. That's what it is like when you are trying to get your message across to a prospect in a market. The one who stops shouting and quietly peels off their clothes and stands naked (or does the equivalent) will stand out.